To write or not to write, now that is the question. It being Saturday afternoon and Monday morning writing class looming on the horizon, little bits and pieces of quotations are floating thru my mind. It also being the last time we meet until the fall months, there are two ways of looking at writing. Either I can work hard, write splendidly, and go out with a bang, or I can sigh, think, everyone is leaving and so it really doesn’t matter anyhow. I can just look thru my old inventory, so to speak, and skim by with no problem. It wouldn’t be the first time, or the last either, so what’s the big deal?
Actually, this seems to be a pretty good synopsis of our lives, I think. Most of us seem to be a combination of these two pathways in life. Sometime we are going forth gung ho, looking forward on a trail towards success and happiness no matter what we must do to achieve it. And at other times we seem to cross over to the easier trail, taking each day as it comes, accepting whatever comes our way, and thinking, No big deal, anyhow. And there are a lot of reasons for our uncertainty because success and happiness usually takes a lot longer to accomplish than we want it to. Particularly since patience is a quality that I myself find hard to find all too often.
At some time in our lives most of us learn the word acceptance for ourselves at least, and forget that once we were the younger go getters, intent on making our way in the world. We marvel at the younger generations and how busy they are, how intent upon making their path successfully and forget our own past efforts. Each group has to learn their own way, and we can watch them doing it, and remember what it was like to feel pushed.
And we can help them in the small everyday ways by showing our encouragement and love for them and their efforts. For me, writing seems to be the way for me to remind them that we all are on the path, in different positions to be sure, but with the same goals of happiness and success for them and their families.
Month: April 2018
TURMOIL
Standard
Definition: a state of great commotion, disturbance, confusion or uncertainty.
also: tumult, agitation, disquiet, mental turmoil caused by difficult decisions.
I have found that each week as I prepare myself to start thinking about what I will write for my class and my blog, it has become increasingly difficult to concentrate upon the subjects we are given. There is nothing wrong with the subjects, which are felt to be of general interest to everyone in the group.
No, it is me, and the constant awareness of the turmoil going on all about us, in our homes, our schools, the constant communication we bombard ourselves with wherever we go.
The turmoil that we feel in our lives when we are faced with the decision of accepting the new way of looking at the world when inside myself I still remember how I was brought up to think about the other persons feelings as well as my own. I was taught to show respect for my elders, and for people of authority. If I didn’t agree with them and often I didn’t, I avoided or ignored the situation as best I could.
I would never use the word “turmoil” as a constant in that long ago world because I was taught and shown that there could be a better way of accomplishing our goals. Now I look back in praise at my parents who never let me feel the turmoil that did exist in the world at that time. Because of course, there was turmoil, plenty of it. But the heros and heroines that I admired were the people that could talk eloquently about problems and inspire us to try to fix them.
Familiarity breeds contempt. With the advent of constant communication we now know way too much about the people who we used to admire from afar. We are left with the constant feeling that there is no one left that is truly honest, or careful or compassionate.
The Golden Rule, which is the ultimate law of decency, has been left by the wayside. No one has ever been able to live only by its law of love, but at least it was a goal.
According to the dictionary there are different kinds of turmoil: emotional, economic, and physical. Right now our country seems to be going thru them all at one time. Turmoil is not good for us, and not good for our children either.
And it is not good for me. I feel like I am writing of a long ago time thru the lens of today. And ignoring todays turmoil becomes extremely difficult. You probably wonder why I don’t just ignore it all at my advanced age. I can go on writing about peace and love and sunshine, and nothing is going to change anyhow.
That is the turmoil, the longing for our children to have heroes and heroines to look up to and admire for their stalwart character. I can’t change my life or my misdeeds such as they may have been, but I can tell the children “there has to be a better way than this.”
“Turmoil” is a word that describes our world right now. So what do I do about it? Retreat from the world? Ignore the commotion? Hide my head in the sand? I don’t know. I only know that the Golden Rule still works. My problem seems to be that it is difficult to find enough people who are willing to follow it. And it is still harder to write about olden times when today we are all being besieged by “turmoil”.
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